Cons:

Deus Ex stands, in this reviewer's humble opinion, as one of the greatest games of all time. I also loved Invisible War, despite the surprising amount of haters it generated. Project: Snowblind takes a lot of the mechanics from the Deus Ex series and puts them in a less linear, more shooting-intensive context. The formula might not duplicate the glory of the former titles, but that wasn't the purpose. What Snowblind attempts -- and is successful in its efforts -- is to be a quality FPS with a deviation on the norm.

Going from a typical soldier in 2065 to a biomodded dynamo is an interesting transition, told well in Project: Snowblind. I especially like the first-person gurney scenes, where main character Nathan Frost fights for survival. The end result is a little hokey, as you get Tron-like blue streaks on your body, but the fashion faux pas is worth it for all the new abilities you earn.

Biomods are smartly dished out one at a time over the course of the game. Some are more valuable than others, as the ability to see through walls is unnecessary due to the HUD's radar, but others like ballistic shielding and cloaking prove invaluable. As a whole, it's a very cool cross-section of skills, and blows the doors off of GoldenEye: Rogue Agent's mods -- not that almost every part of Snowblind doesn't kick the underachieving butt of GoldenEye.

This is far from the only allusion to Deus Ex, as many other aspects liberally borrow from the series. However, it bears mention that even though they enhance the game, most don't have the same impact in Project: Snowblind and its more action-packed bent. For example, there's almost always another way through an area -- usually involving climbing in and around air ducts (you'd think bad guys would do something about this constant breach). Frost can hack into computers, dominate mechs, and even toss spiderbots. Hell, a lot of the weapons (EMP grenades) and enemies (security bots, automated turrets) are ripped right from Deus Ex's design doc.

I have no problem with these similarities, even if an Eidos employee told me with a straight face at E3 2004 that the two games have nothing to do with one another. It's novel to see them in a new capacity, in a somewhat new gameplay style. And with Harvey Smith at Midway and Ion Storm shut down, it's not like we'll see a new Deus Ex anytime soon. Plus, Invisible War never made it to PS2 -- which only got a port of the first Deus.

Project: Snowblind isn't all copycat, mind you. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the vehicles, for example. Using a futuristic Ford Escort to mow down enemies was fun adding a turret to its hood was even better. A physics-based gun allows you to draw in and toss objects at will. Just the fact that this is a balls-out action game is something different, too. Sure, you can be stealthy about it, but it just doesn't feel right. I like tossing a flash grenade into a room, then charging in and taking out the stunned adversaries point-blank with my shotgun. I also like plowing through legions of enemies with my squad in tow.